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If you are seeking new ways to increase your ROI on marketing with your commerce platform, or you may be an entrepreneur who wants to grow your team and be more efficient with your online business.
Talk Commerce with Brent W. Peterson draws stories from merchants, marketers, and entrepreneurs who share their experiences in the trenches to help you learn what works and what may not in your business.
Keep up with the current news on commerce platforms, marketing trends, and what is new in the entrepreneurial world. Episodes drop every Tuesday with the occasional bonus episodes.
You can check out our daily blog post and signup for our newsletter here https://talk-commerce.com
Brent (00:00.91)
Welcome to this episode of Talk Commerce. Today I have Diane Pisani. She is the founder of Home Watch Academy. Diane, do an introduction, do a much better job than I did. Tell us your day -to -day role and one of your passions in life.
Diane Pisani (00:14.493)
I'll be glad to do that and thanks for the opportunity. Home Watch is the opportunity for the seasonal homeowner to hire a company that takes care of their home while it's unoccupied. And I read a survey recently from Ameriprise Financial stating that two out of every three wealthy Americans own second homes. So that's us, that's what we do. Home Watch is a visual observation.
of a home or property looking for obvious issues or problems. So one of our slogans is that we're the difference between damage and disaster. I have a long business career. I hate to say, but I've been self -employed since 1986 when I opened up one of the nation's first cruise -only travel agencies. So we're going to talk about baby boomers today. So I've just identified where I fall into. So we're going to talk about that. But I started some...
woman that I rented from told me about Homewatch and she said, Diane, you would make a great Homewatch concierge person. And I said, you know, I thought you only had a concierge at a hotel and what in the world is Homewatch? And she told me about it. I found somebody who was hiring, got my training there, worked for her for a while. And in 2006, co -founded a Homewatch company. And that just took a couple of years to realize how fragmented the industry is. And in fact, it wasn't even an industry back then. So quick.
Quick overview, way back then, Homewatch itself has been around for a very long time, but it was what we call hobby Homewatchers. They were neighbors doing a favor for their up north friends. They didn't have a registered business, didn't have any kind of software, anything like that. And it was a very fragmented industry with no standards. We grew our Homewatch business very, very quickly. And when the time came to refer overflow business, I...
quite frankly, couldn't find a company worthy of a referral from me. I don't say that in a smarty pants way, but they would almost make jokes. It's like, yeah, well, I do home watch. So I go a couple times after the homeowner leaves and a couple times before they come back. I said, well, what about all the middle time? you don't have to go then. I said, well, aren't they paying you for that? So it's like, are you kidding me? There's no standards here. And then there's a plethora of horror stories, anything from people who would come back and the home watcher in the...
Diane Pisani (02:36.445)
before software would fill in a sign -in sheet in the condo or the house and it's like, well, Diana came back to my condo and they filled it out six weeks in advance.
Brent (02:45.878)
jeez, okay.
Diane Pisani (02:47.293)
You know, that kind of stuff. I mean, I have enough to fill like a million podcasts. But one fellow called, he wanted to get a new Homewatch company. He said, well, I use my condo to send my employees to for a golf weekend. And when they arrived, they thought it was very nice that I left a car in the garage for them. However, when they went upstairs, they found somebody sleeping in the bed. And the Homewatch dude let his friend crash there. And it was just wrong.
So instead of finding referral sources, I decided to build my own and had the idea in 2008 to start training people to build a group of folks that at least had some kind of standards. And that was my first training class. I think I had over 15 people in that particular one and it grew from there. So I was in the field making home watch visits for well over 15 years and we cycle the water when we make visits. So I can proudly say that I have flushed tens of thousands of toilets throughout Southwest Florida. And then I did.
Brent (03:44.942)
That's...
Diane Pisani (03:46.109)
more home watch and some training. I had a wonderful classroom in Naples, Florida for many years and took it to an online version a few years ago. And the Home Watch Academy is the first e -learning program out there for folks who want to start a home watch business.
Brent (04:01.07)
That's perfect. Thank you so much for that. So Deanne, before we get into talking about how this would help people and I know we're also going to talk about millennials today. I do want to do the free joke project and you have volunteered to be or voluntold to be part of the free joke project. So all I'm going to do is tell you a joke and then all you have to do is say, should that joke be free or do you think at some point somebody should pay for it? And today I have a little bit of a tongue twister, so hopefully I can get through it. So here we go.
Diane Pisani (04:01.981)
Thank you.
Brent (04:30.766)
I met a girl who runs a battery kiosk at the local park, so basically she sells sea cells by the sea saw.
Diane Pisani (04:41.469)
Okay, because I live in Florida, because I'm by the beach and we have shells and everything, I'm gonna say they should pay for it.
Brent (04:50.254)
All right. That's great. Thank you so much.
Diane Pisani (04:51.965)
And maybe because you didn't get tongue twisted.
Brent (04:55.566)
Yeah, I practiced a little bit. Good. Yeah, what was your passion? Tell us a passion. Yes.
Diane Pisani (04:58.045)
you told me to say my passion, didn't you?
No, I appreciate that you called it passion because one time I did a podcast and they asked me what my hobbies were and that totally stumped me. It's like hobbies. I'm an entrepreneur. What do you mean hobbies? So my passion because I had a travel agency for many, many years, I will always, always, always be travel. But the real passion is learning. And as in my capacity as an educator and home watch, I'm a I'm a I'm a darn good teacher because I'm an exceptional student. So.
The learning never ends. And I've been listening to a lot of your podcasts recently and I've learned a lot. I mean, even when I listen to one that the industry has nothing to do with what I do, I learn about a new app or a way of doing business. So well done, Brent, well done.
Brent (05:50.19)
That's great. Thank you. And so where you said you're in Naples or you're in South Florida or where are you?
Diane Pisani (05:54.973)
Southwest Florida, I lived in Naples for 19 years starting, I moved there in early 2000s, lived there for 19 years and two years ago I moved 100 miles north to Venice, Florida. So, and I'm still back and forth a lot.
Brent (06:06.19)
Okay, so.
Right, yeah, so I'm summering in Minnesota and the typical Minnesotan at some point is going to winter in northern Florida, most likely. I did just speak to a friend who has a house in South Florida and he's going to move up to Sarasota or Tampa or something like that. I think there's more of a Midwest culture as you get more north in Florida. Yeah.
Diane Pisani (06:27.677)
It's, you know, the growth.
Diane Pisani (06:33.147)
Norther? Well, actually, there's a real big Midwest culture. So on the Gulf side, there's more Midwesterners. On the other side, there's Fort Lauderdale, Miami. It's a little bit more East Coast, but that's changing. And the growth here is nothing short of mind boggling. Thousands of homes, which takes us to the Home Watch is a great business opportunity.
Brent (06:58.894)
Yeah, so I said we summer in Minnesota and we winter in Hawaii and let's just get it off the table. Hawaii is nothing like Florida. The first thing I hear from people is I'm not going to go to Hawaii because I live in South Florida. Well, there's no mountains, that's my first and there's no volcano and there's no alligators. In fact, there's no predators at all in Hawaii, no snakes, no iguanas. So it's a different...
Diane Pisani (07:17.947)
Yeah.
Diane Pisani (07:27.101)
Does that mean you're a surfer? Are you a surfer? Okay. A surfer wannabe. yeah, the iguanas here are funny because when we get cold, we had a pretty cold winter, the weathermen here really need to amuse themselves because if there's no hurricane, there's like very little action. But when it's winter time, they always talk about the iguanas get frozen, they fall out of the trees.
Brent (07:28.942)
I try. I try to surf. Yeah.
Brent (07:50.55)
yeah, I was just in Puerto Rico and I heard the exact same thing. That's very interesting and I did see iguanas way up in the trees. I've heard that they fall out, they'll fall into somebody's pool and that's great.
Diane Pisani (08:04.111)
And the alligator thing is real. And what else is real are black bears.
Brent (08:10.344)
right, yeah, okay, yeah, I guess we have those in northern Minnesota.
Good. All right. So let's dive in. Tell us a little bit about Homewatch. And I think the culture here in Minnesota, at least, is, especially as I was growing up, everybody had a cabin, a lake home. That wasn't even, like, that was the sort of the norm as not even wealthy, as a middle class. And I don't think a lot of people at the time thought about what does it mean? Because a lot of people would, you know, derail the water and close up the cabin and that's it.
But now it's year round, right? People have year round homes and tell us some of the reasoning behind that. And then I guess tell us why you decided there needed to be a lot of education. I think that's the important part.
Diane Pisani (08:58.493)
you know what else? I'll touch on the education thing right away. It's well, because it's a real job. It's like, you know, to this day, I can tell folks that I have a training company. I train individuals to help them grow or start their home watch business. And they'll look me square in the face and say, you need to go to school for that. It's like for what job or career don't you need to go to school for? So, you know, it's always like, just because you live in a house doesn't mean you're qualified to watch somebody else's no more than because I watched The Voice that I'm a good singer.
So, you know, that's our place of business. And I also take exception to the folks that put on their website, well, we'll watch your home as though it's our own. Anybody who is a home watch professional will tell you it's nothing like your own. Homes are like snowflakes and they're all different. So the approach that, you know, came out for the interview here was to talk about like home watch is an opportunity for millennials. And that's kind of cool because...
It was primarily a baby boomer thing back when I started and I can look at my early ads and I used to promote, well, Homewatch is a great career because it's baby boomers serving baby boomers because the avatar was, you know, 50, 60 years old or, you know, fifties and sixties usually. And here in Florida, Homewatch is very, very well known, but it was, it was just, it was just fragmented. So you had your hobbyists, your professionals, and then you have your scoundrels.
And it's the scoundrels take advantage of the homeowners terribly. And that's just unacceptable. But as, as home watch has grown, it's gone from, from a hobby to a profession. And just a couple of years ago, I started calling it an industry and that's, I made a kind of official when Forbes advisor named property watch one of the top, 19 best businesses to start. So when I did a little bit of research about millennials here, and boomers, I looked at the, our,
what's important to us. When I looked at Baby Boomers, it said that we are work -centric, defined by our career. That's true. Entrepreneurial, loyal, and goal -oriented. And Baby Boomers are age 59 to 78. So we're dying. We're very powerful with dying breed, that's for sure. Millennials are the 28 to 43 age group.
Diane Pisani (11:13.179)
And in all frankness, Brent, that's when I realized that as a trainer in Homewatch, I was becoming more successful because I wasn't just training the boomers. Suddenly I was training folks near their 50s, 40s, 30s, and even 20s. It's like, okay, we got us an industry here. And millennials are defined by work -life balance, which is awesome. They care about meaningful work. They like a collaborative environment, flexibility, and independence. And that's what Homewatch gives people.
flexibility, independence, and being your own boss. It's a humdinger of a business opportunity.
Brent (11:49.56)
So explain that you're helping people to start their career, right? You're not offering the career.
Diane Pisani (11:56.541)
Absolutely, I'm fully a training company. So the business model is the Homewatch Academy is an online training company. That's where you get started. And so many folks when they call, it's like, Diane, I found you online, I did my research, there's a lot of information that I have out there, and I want to do this the right way. I've been self -employed for so long. And as an entrepreneur forever, I practice risk management. That's very much my style of training.
And your first level of risk management, of course, is education. Your second level is a good contract and your third level is insurance. And the whole idea is to never ever need the insurance. And the contract, incidentally, and all the forms and everything are included as part of the business owner training package.
Brent (12:43.022)
That's awesome. So tell us a little bit about some of the reasoning on how people do that and then maybe talk a little bit about the lifestyle of being a home watch professional. Can I call it a professional?
Diane Pisani (12:57.149)
Yeah, absolutely. Homewatch professional would be great. Would be absolutely great. Well, anybody that's in a home or in an area where there are seasonal homes or, you know, have an opportunity there. So the popularity at first was we're in places like Arizona and Florida. But let me tell you, some of my biggest growth and new students at the Homewatch Academy is in the Midwest. So it's Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin.
I've got Home Watchers in Alaska. I just got a real successful gal out in California. So we in the southern areas have done our job predisposing our northern friends to Home Watch, and they're very receptive when the new companies open. So I did, I reached out to some of my millennial businesses to ask them what they liked about Home Watch, and I got some really cool answers. And it's like their comments were, I'm my own boss.
get to be at home with my kids and husband, choose my hours, and have a great connection with my clients. It serves my socialization. And another one, she said, let's see here. she goes, being flexible allows me the time. You can also work your butt off. It allows you to set your own hours. In my case, with younger kids, I can go to school and sporting events. Now, you can set your schedule to a very, very large extent, but.
If you have an emergency, you gotta take care of it. But when it comes down to talking about numbers and income potential, you can't beat it. You absolutely can't beat it.
Brent (14:29.038)
And so explain, cause we use a service called trusted house sitters and where they would actually watch the dog and the home and everything. So this is different. This is not somebody necessarily living at your house while you're gone. They're checking to make sure it's, it's, that it's, it's in, it's not burnt down and, and windows are shut and doors are shut. Right.
Diane Pisani (14:52.413)
Exactly. So, and I appreciate so much that you brought up house sitters because folks will be confused between home watch, house sitting, property management, and home inspection. So it's so important for us as home watch professionals to make sure that we identify what we do and our work takes place in usually the non -rental, unoccupied home. Here in Florida, our biggest enemy is going to be mold. And if the air conditioner is not set properly or if it malfunctions,
and humidity goes above 50 % for an extended amount of time, you're going to get microbial growth, which will turn into mold and it can literally destroy the home. And mold can start to grow within two to three days. So it's like, I say, I always tell a homeowner that's considering home watch, it's like, well, imagine if you left in May and went back to your Northern home and came back in October and your air conditioner broke in July.
you may very well come back to a home that's totally destroyed and then you're not gonna be very happy because if it's humidity driven mold, the insurance company will probably deny the claim.
Brent (16:01.07)
Yeah, and I think earlier you had mentioned even just flushing the toilet. We have friends from Canada and during COVID, they couldn't travel to the U .S. And, you know, after two years, their condo was all their hot water heater and their dishwasher. They had to replace it all because everything was sort of gummed up and not working right.
Diane Pisani (16:09.565)
Right?
Diane Pisani (16:23.549)
Well, to that say, to that I can only say, of course, you can't, your homes are meant to be lived in there. You know, it could have been worse because folks will come back to a, you know, a leak from the neighbor up above. I mean, the destruction can be unbelievable. And great that you brought up COVID too, because we literally qualified as an essential service.
Brent (16:46.478)
Yeah. Tell us some of those other things. I think, you know, a lot of a lot of new condos now are requiring you to have some kind of water alarm system. So let's let's maybe the caretaker know that there's an issue in a unit. But you're not only responsible for yourself, but you're also if you're on the second floor, you're responsible for everybody underneath you. So maybe tell us a little bit about how HomeWatch would help mitigate some of those issues.
Diane Pisani (17:15.549)
Well, our job is to notice damage in the early stages before it becomes a disaster and to have a number of best practices like turning the water off when the home is unoccupied. When we make the visit, we go ahead and cycle the water, make sure everything's operational and look for leaks. And, you know, some people have their smart homes and they think that's cool. But technology can be dangerous because a lot of people don't know how to use it. So and nine times out of 10, you know, they don't even know how to adjust their thermostat.
And if that's done incorrectly, especially in a place of high humidity, you're going to have damage. You're going to have damage. So it's growing. It's a growing industry. That's for sure.
Brent (17:56.238)
Yeah, let's go back to the millennials because I'm interested in the interest for them and how you're approaching that market because it is different, right? And I'm Gen X. So it's different for me as well. And I have a millennial daughter and soon to be a grandchild in a couple of weeks here.
Diane Pisani (18:11.099)
We'll
Brent (18:21.582)
There it's going to be another different scenario on how you introduce them, right? Tell us a little bit about the reasoning behind millennials and how you're approaching that.
Diane Pisani (18:31.229)
Well, it's such a growing market right now because it kind of just happened. It's like, I realize I'm getting all these folks in that age group. There's something cool going on here. And it's got to do with everything with what's available in the workforce out there. And a lot of millennials, it seems they are already predisposed to having more than one gig. And if they do live in a seasonal area, there's different times of the year that you're busy doing that.
So they might be a bartender or a server at the Ritz Carlton during high season. And then they're, they're struggling during the summer season in Florida, for example. So what I, what I looked at and I, in my presentations, I'll talk about income potential because you're going to start a business. That's one of the things that you want to look at. And I realized in so many of my presentations that I was being really conservative with the potential, which is good. I kept my Midwest conservative self there.
But it's like, how dare I not give another realistic scenario? So when I crunched the numbers, our Homewatch visits, when I started in 2006, it was like $40 a visit in 2006. And that was a time when other people were doing visits for like 20, $25. And I remember I went out for a beer one time after work, because it was really a hot day. And there's other trades there. And a gentleman came up and said, well, I am a
I see you have a home watch company, looked at my t -shirt and I said, yeah. And he said, how many clients do you have? I go, well, it's our first year. So we've got about 30 clients. I said, how many do you have? And he said, 110. And I said, well, that sounds like a lot. I said, do you have a business partner? He goes, no, I do it myself. And it's like, that sounds like a lot for one person. And then he said, what do you charge? And I said, well, we started $40 per visit. He looked at me, he goes, you can't get that.
I said, well, I'm sure glad nobody told me because I kind of get it all day. I said, what do you charge? And he said 20 bucks a visit. So I paused for an appropriate amount of time, looked him straight in the face and said, guess I should buy you a beer. So you either work harder or you work smarter. And you know, God bless nice people go into home watch. They have customer service skills and servants heart, but you got to be fair to your business financially.
Brent (20:31.854)
Hahaha.
Diane Pisani (20:44.637)
So some of the people out there still charge in 30 or $35, which to me is absolute positive insanity. So I did some check on the consumer price index and 2006, so $40 in 2006, in 2024 is $62. So a lot of my companies are at 60 to $65 per visit. So if we look at that 65 bucks a visit,
and based it on 50 clients, give a quick overview here, 50 clients, maybe half of them being weekly, half being bi -weekly a couple times a month. And in Florida, our average person is gone about eight months out of the year, believe it or not, on average, some are six months, some are back and forth. But using that for a calculation, this comes out to like a yearly billing of over $78 ,000.
And that's only for Homewatch. And then our add -on services are called Concierge Services, and that can add 20, 30, 40 % or more. So that's the conservative potential in Homewatch. And in my preparation, I not only talked to some of my millennial folks, but I met with one of my gals yesterday, and she's got a humdinger of a business, and she's got a couple of kids in sports and school, so they're busy. She's actually Brent.
averaging $4 ,000 per client. So with 20 clients, she's at like 80 grand. And I said, OK, that's really a good number. And her concierge services, her other services she does for homeowners is anywhere from 50 % to 70 % of her income. So for anybody starting a home watch business, but with the creativity of the kids in that age group, the millennial age group,
Brent (22:32.192)
Wow.
Diane Pisani (22:39.901)
They can be brilliant with this. Absolutely brilliant. So there's real money in it. Real money in it.
Brent (22:48.302)
Tell us a little bit about the concierge, what is it that they're adding on and what kind of value does it add for the client?
Diane Pisani (22:56.093)
When a lot of times people will leave their cars here and if they're in a garage and everything and they're on a trickle charger, they may be fine. I did a lot of work in high rises where folks left their cars in the garage and you can't let them sit all year. So especially, I mean any car, but especially a high performance vehicle needs to be driven. So you can't, and some people they re -chart, they just start the car and run it.
And I'm gonna take a little segue on that so I don't forget this story because I got another really good story. One of my brand new business owners brought on a new client who fired his home watcher. And the reason he fired the home watcher is because the guy went there, made the home watch visit, started the car and let it run, which again, doesn't charge a battery, doesn't serve it well, but left the car running, closed the garage door.
Can you even believe that? And a neighbor saw the fumes coming out and it's like, are you kidding me? So people, they're they're nuts and they don't have training. So car drives is something that we do. So my gal who's got the high billing here and actually one of my people that do, her car drives $45 per car drive. So we give it a good 10 to 15 miles and the frequency of the car drive is determined by the mechanic for that type of car. And then,
Brent (23:51.118)
Yeah, jeez.
Diane Pisani (24:19.005)
When we find something wrong with the home, say the air conditioner is malfunctioning or there's a leak and you need to call a service provider, that's going to be a billable service also. And then it's anything from accepting deliveries, overseeing projects, it can really, really add up. So one person with 20 or 30 clients may have more billable income than somebody with 50 or 60 or 70 homeowners. There's no limit.
Brent (24:46.35)
Yeah, that's amazing.
Diane Pisani (24:48.637)
It is amazing. It's wonderful.
Brent (24:51.694)
So Diane, we have a few minutes left here. Tell us how people can get in touch with you and as we close out, I give everybody a chance to do a shameless plug. So both tell us, give us some of your contact information and what would you like to plug today?
Diane Pisani (25:11.421)
I would be very happy to. So my corporate website is at your HWP, Y -O -U -R HWP .com. And that's my parent company shortened for your Homewatch professionals. And that website will take you to every place that you need to go. And what I would love anybody to do that's considered, that's maybe heard about Homewatch for the first time and it's like, well, this sounds kind of cool. Maybe I need to learn more.
I've got a free ebook that I wrote called Starting a Home Watch Business, and you can request it there. Now, so I guess that kind of is the plug, but for my millennial people, should they find that Home Watch is intriguing, I'm going to give them a coupon code. So if you decide that you want to do it and this is right business for you, I will be very excited. I'll be your cheerleader. I'll be everything. And one of my slogans is that...
It's the Home Watch Academy is not just training, it's a career long resource and I live that. But the coupon code for them to save $100 off the full price, well actually it's a little bit discounted, is millennial. So the trick is they have to know how to spell millennial.
Brent (26:21.294)
Yeah, I'll make sure I spell it out in the show notes because and I'll That's perfect Diane Passani is the founder of homewatch Academy. Thank you so much for being here today
Diane Pisani (26:25.187)
got a spell millennial so coupon code millennial.
Diane Pisani (26:37.629)
It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you.